Social-media companies make extensive use of artificial
intelligence in their efforts to remove and block
terrorist content from their platforms. This paper
begins by arguing that, since such efforts amount to
an attempt to channel human conduct, they should be
regarded as a form of regulation that is subject to
rule-of-law principles. The paper then discusses
three sets of rule-of-law issues. The first set
concerns enforceability. Here, the paper highlights
the displacement effects that have resulted from the
automated removal and blocking of terrorist content
and argues that regard must be had to the whole
social-media ecology, as well as to jihadist groups
other than the so-called Islamic State and other
forms of violent extremism. Since rule
by law is only a necessary, and not
a sufficient, condition for compliance with
rule-of-law values, the paper
then goes on to examine two further sets of issues:
the clarity with which social-media companies define
terrorist content and the adequacy of the processes
by which a user may appeal against an account
suspension or the blocking or removal of content.
The paper concludes by identifying a range of
research questions that emerge from the discussion
and that together form a promising and timely
research agenda to which legal scholarship has much
to contribute.